Attribution models and purchase intent: which is right for you?

Your attribution model can tell you a lot about the purchase intent of your customers at various stages and the search terms they use. This then demonstrates which stage(s) of the funnel you may need to spend more on to catch your customers, or which locations in Google’s Display Network to meet your customers at.

There are a number of different attribution models available on Google Ads that can be used to better understand your audience and your search terms. How you choose them depends on your goals of using Google Shopping.

Brand awareness and visibility

For instance, if your primary goal is to increase your visibility and boost brand awareness, the position-based model is more suitable. This is because the position-based model attributes 40% of the conversion credit to the first interaction and 40% to the last interaction, splitting the final 20% between the remaining interactions.

This means you can see where your customers start their journey and where they finish, highlighting what’s helping build brand awareness and what nudges your customers to complete the purchase.

Boosting your ROAS

For companies looking to maximise their ROAS, it makes sense to use the linear model. This is because the linear model attributes each interaction, at every stage of the buyer journey, with an equal value.

This enables you to understand what your audience is searching for at every stage of the journey. You can then use this information to improve your negative keyword targeting as well as in other channels like social media, paid search, and SEO.

Bidnamic and attribution models

Using an attribution model which informs you of the search terms used at different stages of your audience’s journey helps to build an accurate intent funnel.

Using models like linear and position-based, you can identify the full path of awareness, consideration, and purchase search terms for each product, which might not be available with other models.

Bidnamic's algorithms use this search term data to calculate the right CPC for the right search, at the right time. What's more, our commitment to full transparency means you can access all your search term data, and use this information in other channels and strategies like SEO and social media.

Using attribution models with Performance Max

Like Smart Shopping, Performance Max ‘black-boxes’ your search term data, meaning you can’t see what your customers are searching for or what search terms lead to a conversion. Data inaccessibility hinders your growth and value from Google Shopping.

Everything you need to know about Performance Max campaigns